davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

Several weeks ago, while comment.
ing on Rosser's letter rs to how Sher-
idan should be treated if he came TO
this valley, we took occasion to say
that, should he visit this section, he
would be let severely alone by the
more respectable people, but we pre-
dicted that those Federal officers
who, during the war, endeavored to
preserve the usages of civilized war
fare would be cordially received A
recent event has vindicatec what We
then said. On last Wednesday Gen
eral Averill stopped for few hours
at one of the hotels in this town.
During the war he commanded in
this valley and endeavorcd to protect
helpless women and children from
wanton insult. SO far as we can
learn the better element in society
here called upon him to pay their re.
spects as soon as informed Of his
presence. We undertake to say that
General Averill will testify that the
people of Jefferson distinguish be-
tween Sheridan and soldier who
did not insult helpless women and
children.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
TuRNPIKEs.
Communicated.

There is no investment, that will
more surely give satisfactory returns
of profits to an agricultural commu-
nity than a liberal and judicious ex-
penditure of money in the perma-
nent improvement of the public
roads: and in county'like Jefferson,
Astounding in limestone, such lm-
movements can be effected, in no
manner better, than by properly
graded, McAdamized turnpikes.
Such roads are easily constructed,
comparatively permanent, readily re-
paired, and good at all seasons oil
the year, and in all conditions of the
weather.
These reflections have been srg-
gested by reading in your paper no.
tice of scheme to pike a portion OF
the old dirt road leading from
Charlestown to Winchester, by Sum.
nit Point, and l beg leave to offer
the following items of estimates,
which occur to me as strong argu-
ments in behalf of the proposed en-
terprise, without taking the time or
the space to discuss the question of
general benefit, accruing to the whole
community, from such an improve
ment, let us examine the special adj
vantage to those living along the line
Of the road.
1t will be readily granted, l think,
that every estate located Immediate
" on this dirt road will be enhanced
in value per cent. by the construc-
ton of a good McAdamized turnpike
in lieu of the present road. Let us
estimate this.
The distance is 7 miles. Allow
the special advantage to extend one
mile back from. the pike, and you
will have IA square miles, or $500
acres of farming lands lying imme-
diately along the projected improve
ment, and deriving this special ben
eft.
This land at $50 per acre amounts
in value to $44S,000. per cent. on
this, the estimated increased value,
due to the new road, amounts to
$22,400. And 6 per cent. on this in
creased valuation, gives you an an
nual increase of 1,344.
Your road will cost $4,000. 5
per cent on this (your county bonds
bear 5 per cent. / think is 500.
Thus, at an expenditure of 500 q
year, you have an annual increase
to the property-holders along the
line of the road, Of 81 ,344.
Again: Assuming that the pres
ent road tax is 10 cents on the 500
to keepin poorrepair the dirtroad,un-
der the existing system, the property
holders above mentioned pay annu-
ally to the road fund $44S. And
thus it is seen that the small addi-
tional sum of 1852 will pay the an
nual interest on the cost of the turn
pike.
Are these facts? If so, are they
not worth considering?
A FARMER.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

RAILROAD PROFIT SHARING.-The
Toledo. Ann Arbor and North Mich
igan road is the first railway corpo-
ton in this country TO adopt the
plan OF profit-sharing among its en-
ployes. To all its men of five years
standing it will give percentage
upon wages equal to the stock divi-
dends. The total of the wages paid
is to be added to the stock, and the
sum total is to be the capital stock
on which the dividend is to be de-
clared.
This is move in the right direc-
ton. We have always contended,
the employees Of q railroad did not
receive their just proportion of the
money which is collected from the
public.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

Hon. G.. j. Faulkner was in town
Monday for few hours and was
warmly greeted by his many friends
here. We understand he expressed
himself as being entirely confident
that the Senate will hold that he
and not Mr.. Lucas is entitled to the
seat. Judge Faulkder, we learn, cx-
pressed his purpose of making a
study of the different public ques-
tions and then taking his stand on
them. He has received from Gov.
Wilson an elaborate certificate Of
the facts relating to his election,
with which he is entirely content.
The Governor, believing that the
Legislature, at the extra session, did
not have jurisdiction to choose n
Senator, simply certified the facts.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

ago, and those who do not accen,
anl approve it will have to seek otbss
and more Neongenial association "
the ranks of the Republican party
The true Democrats of Georoi.
those who are Democrats in princi
pie and for principle, and not afor
anything to win" the offices, are do
termined at the next opportunity
thoroughly to Democratize the party
by purging it of protectionists.
Judge Kelly came to Rome few
weeks ago on a sort Of prosecuting
visit under the auspices of the pro-
prletors of Admission, some of whom
formerly resided in Rome, but he &C.
complished nothing for his side.
though he had made the discovery
that protective tariff was business
and not politics, and announced that
he had come to talk business and
not politics. 1t was shrewdly put.
but failed of its purpose Our
most prosperous manufacturers
in Georgia are opposed TO a
protective tariff. For example
there are President Young, of the
Eagle and Phoenix Mills, at Colum-
bus, the most prosperous mill in the
South; Mr.. Kincaid, Of Griffin, and
others ] might mention. All they
want and need to compete success
fully with the world in the cheap
manufacture of cotton goods is
cheaper machinery than thy can
now get and sensible reciprocity
in our commercial laws that will
open up markets to them for their
goods outside the United States. II
you examine closely into the motives
of the iron men in Georgia and Ala.
bama, who can make pig-iron at IS
and 80 per ton.and who favor protec-
ton, you will find that they do so TO
enable them to quietly buy up all
the desirable coal and iron lands
and monopolize the business.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

A very intelligent correspondent
writes us:
The masses mean right but are
not wise except when informed OF
the facts. They cannot be miSled
on subjects they understand 50
long as a paper like yours circulates
in every county it viii be impossible
TO pack the conventions of next year
as the conventions Of 1881 were
packed. The clique that has here
tofore run the Democratic party
must either suppress your paper or
abandon the idea that West Virginia
is to be treated as the pocket Dor
Ough of millionaireS. l really be
lieve YOU have done more to wake up
the people than all the papers and
speeches in twenty years. II your
paper continues TO circulate candi-
dates will be questioned as they have
never been questioned before. They
will be asked what they have done
to help the passage of laws to pre-
vent railroad officials from absorb
ing all the wealth in the State; they
will be asked what they have done
towards eQualiZing taxation, and
there are a good many other subjects
on which We are now prepared to ask
questions which never occurred to US
before your paper was established.
i am not at all surprised that GER
persons object to its circulation.
The politicians, who make speeches
ON every subject but the subjects
most important to the general ran of
voters, will find that they will he
obliged to meet the issue and take
sides without equiyocation This
means political death to men who
run with the hare and stay with the
hounds. Your paper is doing an
amount Of good in the way of popu-
lar education, probably you your
self do not comprehend. Every day
persons meet inmy store and express
to each other the very same ideas /
had read the week before in the pa
per and it often happens that the
man who is the most positive and
Self-asserting does not himself see 4
copy of it. The other evening a
gentleman remarked that if he talk
ed five minutes with a stranger he
could tell whether or not the DEMO
GRAFT had a subscriber in the neigh
bOrhOod where the stranger lived.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

Those who realize how important
it is the views advocated by us
should be understood by the people,
can best aid the cause by lending
the DEMOCRAT TO their neighbors,
and by sending us the names of such
of their acquaintance as are sufli-
GENTLY intelligent to comprehend
the value of such a paper as this:-
We very cheerfully mail sample
copies free to any address.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

The Charleston Is. CO. News and
Courier has an account of another
railroad combination. A Boston
company has nearly 5000 hands at
work on the Charleston, Cincinnati
and Chicago road Attention is
called to the following paragraph
1t is to be a through line from
Charleston to the Lakes. The syn
dictate has already CAPTURED the c.
& NJ. and most of the lines will be
obtained by buying up existing roads
but new road is to be built from
Camden, S. c., to Ashland KY, via
Shelby, N. c. The syndicate al
ready own 100000 acres embracing
a great extent of coal lands.
Rejecting men will consider what
will be the future of this country
when syndicates control both high
ways and coal fields.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
WEST VIRGINIA DEMOCRAT JUNE TO- 1887

The newspapers are recommend
ing for Governor certain gentlemen
who in the last Legislature opposed
the bill to prohibit free-pass bribery
and also the bill to protect local
traffic against railroad discrimina-
ton. We ask these papers whether
they believe any man can be elected
who, in the struggle between the
people and the railroad managers,
took sides against the people?
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
NEWSPAPERS.

The following is an extract from
Il private letter written by probably
the wisest observer of politics this
country has ever seen.
You ask my opinion of the man
ncr in which 4 newspaper should be
conducted, so as to be most useful.
l answer,-"by restraining it to true
facts and sound principles only"
Yet | fear such paper would find
few subscribers. lis a melancholy
truth, thata suppression of the press
could not more completely deprive
henatiOn of its benefits, than is done
by its abandoned prostitution to
falsehoOd Very little can be believ-
ell that is now seen in newspaper.
Truth itself becomes suspicious by
being put in that polluted vehicle.
The real extent of this state of mis-
information is known only to those
who are in situations to confront
facts within their own knowledge
with lies they see in the papers. 1
really look with great commisera-
tion over the great bodyof my fellow
citizens, who, reading newspapers,
live and die in the belief, that they
have known something of what has
been passing in the world in their
time: whereas the accounts they have
read in the newspapers are just as
true Il history OF any other period as
of the present, except that the real
names Of the day are affixed to their
fables. General facts may indeed
be collected from them but the de-
tails cannot be relied on, Indeed
the man who never looks into q
newspaper is better informed than
he who reads them; inasmuch as he
who knows nothing is nearer the
truth than he whose mind is filled
with falsehood. He who does not
see newspaper will still learn
the great facts of his day. and the
details in the papers are generally
false.
Perhaps an editor might begin 4
reformation in some such way as this.
Divide his paper into four chapters
heading the lst, Truths; md, Prob
abilities: 3rd, Possibilities; 4th,
Lies. The first chapter would be
very short, as it would contain little
more than authentic papers, and in
formation from such sources as the
editor would be willing to risk his
own reputation for their truth. The
second would contain what, from q
mature consideration of all eircum
Stances, his judgment should con-
clude to be probably true. This,
however, should rather contain too
little than too much. The third
and fourth should be professedly for
those readers who would rather have
lies for their money than the blank
paper they would occupy.
Such an editor too, would have to
set his face against the demoralizing
practice of feeding the public mind
habitually on SANDER, and the de-
pravity of taste which this nauseous
aliment induces.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

FAYETTE COUNTY, June 2.-Whilst
i recognize your paper as very ably
edited, yet do not care to take it
any longer. / do not endorse your
tariff views. They may suit Jeffer-
son and Berkeley, and possibly a
few more counties, but they do not
suit me or my county. The North
has grown rich under the present
tariff and the South will do likewise
if left alone ten years. So l am for
letting things remain as they are.
AS to the tariff, repeal the Internal
Revenue and we will have no sur
plus.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
We had before us. and intende


We had before us, and intended
to print, speech delivered in the
U. S. Senate in 1856, by the Hon. j.
NJ. Mason, of Virgins but we find
our publication of it has been antic-
ipated by other papers. The ques-
ton was, whether State has the
power to place qualifications upon
the office of Senator in addition to
those prescribed by the Federal Con-
stitution? Mr.. Mason was OF opin-
ion that State could not add other
qualifications.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
NORTH TEXAS.

Gen. Afford, of Texas. recently
gave the Post Dispatch, in st. Louis,
some information about his State
which is reported as follows:
The elevation above the sea varies
from l 900 to 1000 feet. The never
failing gulf breeze in reaching this
elevation over hundreds of miles of
undulating farm and pasture land
loses its. humidity, and the result is
cool, delightful atmosphere, full of
the ozone of ruddy health and active
vitality. This splendid country is
admirably watered, and its numer-
Gus and extensive valleys are as fer
tile as any on the earth, the alluvial
soil being thirty to sixty feet in
depth, while its plateaus and uplands
are as rich as any in Missouri or IL
linois, and remind one very much of
the charming country about Spring
field and Sedalia, in Southwest Mis-
souri,; and Gen. Afford feels conf
dent that in very few years the
whole of North Texas will be as
densely populated and the lands will
sell for as high price as they now do
in the vicinity of these prosperous
Missouri cities.
About one hundred miles north
west of Dallas and Fort Worth are
four or five of the very best counties
in the State-Archer, Wichita. Will
barger, Baylor, and Clay-which
have heretofore been occupied by
cattle kings with their vast herds,
but lands have become so valuable
and in such demand for actual set
Element that the owners are now will
ling to move their herds to cheaper
and more remote regions, and this
fertile and beautiful section will soon
be filled with an Industrious and en-
terprising population, and there will
be a number of important towns and
at least one city of great Importance.
Gen. Afford thinks this will be near
the center Of Archer county, because
Of its geographical position, about
one hundred miles west of Gaines
vile, 100 northwest Of Dallas and
Fort Worth and 100 northeast of
Abilene, at the gate of the great Pan
handle of Texas, and in the center
of one of the richest mineral sections
on the continent, full of coal, iron
and copper ore.
Gen. Afford says number of rail
ways are chartered and are now
building through this immediate
part of North Texas, land it can hard
ly be doubted that where these roads
meet and cross, not only one but sew
eral important cities will at once
spring into existence.
The vast mineral resources of this
section, so near to us, arc unknown
to the business men Of st. Louis, who
are also ignorant of the fact that
North Texas is to-day the best wheat
section of the continent. Yet Gen.
Afford gives us some official stats
tics compiled from data obtained
from the Department of Agriculture
at Washington, which conclusively
establish this fact. The yield in
dollars (not bushels per acre in the
great wheat States of the Union is
as follows:
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

The Washington correspondent of
the Sun, in his letter Of last Sunday,
says:
1t Is we'll understood here thai
when Congress meets, one of the first
matters will be the Interstate Com
merce Bill 1t is an open secret,
the railways have agreed to question
the legality Of the appointment OF
the Commissioners, if that course will
benefit them. But outside of this,
while the railway corporations are
nominally yielding graceful aequl-
>escence to the edictS of the commits
sion, it is apparent they are acting
in more than one respect to make the
law creating the commission odious.
The last move is general increase
in the price of coal over summer
prices for years past, and when ask
ed the reason, the only answer is that
it is caused by the interstate com
mission act. The railroads are also
apparently doing their best to stir
up complaint and dissatisfaction in
regard to the free pass matter.
Let thoughtful men contrast the
above paragraph with the following
facts:
1t is well known that Harper's
Ferry Is one of the very best loca-
tions in the country for manulac-
lures, but its magnificent WATERPROOF
er has remained idle simply because
the B. & o. rates were prOhibitory.
Some three years ago, Slavery d Co,
purchased the Government property
for the trihing price Of $4,000.
They then expected to establish
large factories Immediately but were
delayed by the refusal of the corpo-
ration to give them reasonable rates.
The interstate commerce bill enables
them to do business at Harper's Fer
~ and they are actively at work
building their mills. Hence, there
is every prospect that, in the near
future, Harper's Ferry will become
what, with this law she should have
been ten years ago,-a prosperous
manufacturing town. tits 4 matter
o! public knowledge here, that Sal
very would not have embarked his
enterprise in the absence of the in
terstate commerce bill. The people
of the Ferry now realizethe truth of
what we have been telling them for
ten years past. The people of the
Ferry are not likely to favor re-
peal Of the interstate commerce bill.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

While Gen. Afford is still COM
paratively young man he distinctly
remembers when q school boy the to-
tai population ofTexas was less than
$4,000. Now it is over 100000,
and if the same ratio of increase
were preserved for the next forty
years Texas would contain a popu-
lation of 1S0,O00,0OO OF course,
this is impossible, but it is within
the domain Of reason and probabili-
ty that the man now in middle life
will not be an old man when the i'm
perial State of Texas will contain 4
population Of 100000 of people.
The General gave the reporter
some further very interesting sto lis
tics compiled from official data re-
garding the increase of population
and taxable wealth in twenty con-
tiguous counties in North Texas,
from Dallas, north, to Red river, and
west to the Brazos. The population
of this Gordon oftwenty counties was,
in 1870, $4,000; 1880, 100000;
1886, 10000.
The taxable wealth Of these coun-
ties was, in 1870, $27, 900, 900; 1880,
ST., 100000; 1886, $156.600,000
Such phenomenal development is
unheard of in the history of the
world.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

A New DEPARTURE IN STocK RAILS
met has been reported to us by
Mr.. Jno. S. Castlcman, a prosperous
young farmer of this county, that
he has taken a new departure in
ture in raising colts. One of his
valuable mares dying and leaving a
foal two weeks old, he was put to
his wits as how to raise the colt.
Having an aldernay cow in his stable,
the idea struck him to make the COW
raise it. So, taking the colt TO the
stable and introducing it to the cow,
they soon took to each other and
now the colt has forgotten his origi-
nal mother and is doing well. Mr..
Castleman tells us that now the colt
serves him excellently as a stripper,
going down the line OF seven COWS
and leaving them perfectly dry when
through his work.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

The steamship Umbria arrived at
New York last Saturday, having
made the trip from Queenstown to
Sandy Hook in 6 days and hours
and IL minutes, the fastest time in
this direction on record. Heretofore
the fastest time was hour and -
minutes longer.
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10

We call upon thoughtful citizens
to keep before the people the fact
that the railway managers endeavor
to exclude from the public ear every
capable man who is true, faithful
and loyal to the masses. Let it be
remembered, that experience shows
that these managers are able to con
troll almost the entire newspaper
West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1887-06-10
West TisgiiaIia Democrat.
THOMAS H. Mason, Business Manager

Subscribers failing to receive their
paper regularly, viii please notify
us. 1t frequently happens that a
name is dropped from our mailing
list by accident and we never know
it unless notified by the subscriber.